A bit more than a year ago, I was anxiously anticipating the Lord of the Rings video game, The White Council. An open-ending role-playing game, along the line of Morrowind, The White Council would have put gamers in the role of a character in the period a few decades prior to The Lord of theContinue reading “On Two Calendars”
Category Archives: Tolkien
On The Hobbit Sequel
Following up on yesterday’s announcement from MGM and New Line that Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will be producing two Hobbit films, I wanted to muse, for a few moments, on what those two Hobbit films will be. It’s been rumored for a while that MGM wanted two Hobbit films — indeed, theirContinue reading “On The Hobbit Sequel”
On The Hobbit Film Duology
The Hobbit movie. The long-rumored two-film plan. Peter Jackson. It’s happening! I’ll quote the whole damn thing: LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Academy Award(R)-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. ; Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of New Line Cinema have jointly announced today that theyContinue reading “On The Hobbit Film Duology”
On the Yule Days
In the Shire the year is winding down. Today, December 18th, begins the Yule Days, the six-day celebration of the end of the year. Tolkien writes little of the Yule Days, except to call them one of the chief holidays and a time of great feasting. One imagines that pipeweed was smoked, ale was quaffedContinue reading “On the Yule Days”
On Tengwar Fun
How would one write “Yankees Suck” in Tengwar, the Elvish alphabet from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings? It’s a good question, and I’ve had an interesting discussion with Star Trek author Geoff Trowbridge on that very point. My take on “Yankees Suck” — So, Red Sox fans out there. If you want to slamContinue reading “On Tengwar Fun”
On Long-Expected Parties
I fired up Opera this morning, looked at my own website, and there, in the sidebar, was the usual “this day in Middle-Earth” feature. And lots of things happened in Middle-Earth today. A few years ago I wrote a BASIC program to convert Gregorian dates into Shire dates. No, I can’t tell you why —Continue reading “On Long-Expected Parties”
On Balrog Wings
So, I’m reading this long and lengthy analysis on The Children of Hurin, The Silmarillion, and The History of the Hobbit, and I have but one thing to say… Balrogs have wings. Because wings look cooler. And because Peter Jackson says so. ‘Nuff said.
On Weird Waking Thoughts
I have strange thoughts as I wake up. This morning was no different. I’m writing this, just so it’s down. The Ents. What sort of metaphysical philosophy would they believe in? Do Ents have an afterlife? Do Ents believe they have an afterlife? Are they doomed to walk Middle-Earth forever, and in time be forgot?Continue reading “On Weird Waking Thoughts”
On the Need for Hobbies
Being the hot, miserable day that it is, I worked on a Word macro coding project for work I’d started (and finished–or at least got something that runs) last week, to clean up the code, strip out some redundancies, and replace a brute-force search-and-replace with a much cleaner looped search-and-replace. And then, I turned myContinue reading “On the Need for Hobbies”
On Mid-Year's Day
In the Shire, today is Mid-Year’s Day. The summer solstice. A special holiday. Go out and enjoy it. I don’t know where you, dear readers, are, but today looks to be gorgeous here in Charm City. Party like it’s 1420! Party like you’re a Hobbit!